Truck carrying radioactive waste stolen in Mexico

A truck carrying radioactive waste from a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico, to a waste storage center has been stolen, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The truck was stolen in Tepojaco, near Mexico City.
“At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded,” the agency said. “However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged.”
The IAEA has offered its services to Mexican authorities, and it said local police have alerted the public and are searching for the stolen vehicle.
According to FreightWatch International, carriers reported 312 cargo thefts in the country between July and September, with 102 occurring in July, and 105 each in August and September. The organization noted that there had been a decrease in thefts, year over year, but it was hesitant to point to any improvement because of the unreliability of the carrier-reported data and the low reporting level of general crime in Mexico.
“The 2013 National Crime Victimization and Public Safety Perception Survey performed by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography revealed approximately 87 percent of all crimes are never reported to authorities,” FreightWatch wrote in its quarterly Mexican theft report. “On the supply chain side, reporting can be sparse for reasons such as lack of confidence that authorities will follow through on theft reports and the fact that drivers have spread the word that they have been threatened with bodily harm or death if they report incidents.”